Interactive voice response system with partial human monitoring

ABSTRACT

The present invention enables service agents in a call center to monitor portions of calls that are especially error-prone (e.g., automated speech recognition of an address, etc.), while portions of calls that are not error-prone occur without any human monitoring. An interactive voice response (IVR) system script (e.g., a VXML script, etc.) is divided into a plurality of independent dialog sequences, each of which is assigned a human-monitoring requirement that indicates whether (and optionally, to what degree) the dialog sequence requires monitoring by a service agent. In the first illustrative embodiment, a partial ordering enables some dialog sequences to appear in a different order in that of the IVR script when it is advantageous to do so. In the second illustrative embodiment, each dialog sequence that requires human monitoring is recorded and packaged into an agent-review task that is subsequently sent to an available service agent for review.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telecommunications in general, and,more particularly, to an interactive voice response system that enablespartial human monitoring of calls.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A call center is a place where calls from users, such as customers, arehandled in support of an organization's activities. Organizations thatprovide a call center, such as companies that offer a service or aproduct, do so to provide assistance and information to customers of theservice or product. A call center typically comprises an interactivevoice response (IVR) system that enables a caller to obtain informationwithout any human involvement, or to speak to a person known as aservice agent. Typically an interactive voice response (IVR) systempresents a hierarchy of menus to a caller, and enables the caller toinput information to navigate the menus (e.g., entering alphanumericinformation via a telephone keypad, selecting a menu option by sayingthe number associated with the option, etc.). An interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system is advantageous economically because it enables acall center to accommodate callers with fewer service agents.

FIG. 1 depicts telecommunications system 100 in accordance with theprior art. Telecommunications system 100 comprises telecommunicationsterminal 102, telecommunications network 103, and call center 104,interconnected as shown.

User 101 uses telecommunications terminal 102 (e.g., a telephone, abrowser-enabled client, etc.) to place a call to call center 104 viatelecommunications network 103 (e.g., the Public Switched TelephoneNetwork [PSTN], the Internet, etc.). Typically user 101 usestelecommunications terminal 102 to place a voice telephone call to callcenter 104. In some instances, however, user 101 might initiate atext-based instant messaging (IM) session, or might activate a“push-to-talk” button on a website that is associated with call center104, etc.

FIG. 2 depicts the salient elements of call center 104, in accordancewith the prior art. Call center 104 comprises data-processing system205; interactive voice response system (IVR) 206; telecommunicationsterminals 207-1 through 207-N, where N is a positive integer; clients209-1 through 209-N; and application server 210, interconnected asshown.

As shown in FIG. 2, each telecommunications terminal 207-n (e.g., atelephone, etc.), for n=1 through N, is associated with a respectiveservice agent 208-n. Service agent converse with callers viatelecommunications terminal 207, and interact with one or more softwareapplications via client 209-n (e.g., a personal computer, a “dumb”terminal, etc.), both during a call and between calls. The softwareapplications are client/server or web-based and are hosted onapplication server 210, in well-known fashion.

Private branch exchange (PBX) 205 receives incoming calls fromtelecommunications network 103 and directs the calls to interactivevoice response (IVR) system 206 or to one of telecommunicationsterminals 207. Private branch exchange (PBX) 205 also receives outboundsignals from telecommunications terminals 507 and interactive voiceresponse system 506 and transmits the signals on to telecommunicationsnetwork 103 for delivery to the caller's terminal.

Interactive voice response (IVR) system 206 prompts a caller forinformation and menu selections via synthesized speech, and receivesinput from the caller (e.g., speech signals, keypad input, etc.) viaprivate branch exchange 205. Interactive voice response system 206 isalso capable of: recording a caller's speech and keypad input during acall; performing automated speech recognition (ASR) on a caller'sspeech; submitting commands and forwarding caller input to one or moresoftware applications that reside on application server 210; andreceiving output from these software applications.

Application server 210 hosts one or more web-based or client/serversoftware applications that perform tasks such as customer recordmaintenance, inventory management, order processing, etc. As describedabove, these software applications can be accessed by both clients 209and interactive voice response (IVR) system 206.

The Extensible Markup Language, abbreviated XML, is a specification thatenables the creation of customized tags, which in turn enables thedefinition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data betweentwo applications, organizations, etc. Voice Extensible Markup Language(abbreviated VoiceXML or VXML) is an application of the ExtensibleMarkup Language (XML) that enables dialogs featuring synthesized speech,digitized audio, recognition of spoken and keyed input, recording ofspoken input, and telephony. The primary objective of VXML is to bringthe advantages of web-based development and content delivery tointeractive voice response applications.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary Voice Extensible Markup Language (VXML)script (also known as a VXML document or page), in accordance with theillustrative embodiment of the present invention. The VXML script, whenexecuted by interactive voice response system 206, prompts the callerfor his or her social security number, and then his or her mother'smaiden name for security purposes. The script then presents a menu withtwo options; the first option is for reviewing account balances, and thesecond option is for performing transactions. Audio content (inparticular, synthesized speech) that corresponds to text between the<prompt> and </prompt> tags is generated by interactive voice responsesystem 206 and transmitted to the caller.

In call centers that employ VXML scripts, typically application server210 initially retrieves a “top-level” script at the beginning of a call,and subsequently, in response to menu selections and informationsupplied by the caller, application server 210 might retrieve one ormore additional VXML scripts during the course of a call (e.g., a scriptfor reviewing account balances, a script for processing transactions,etc.). Alternatively, a single large VXML script or application might beemployed for the entire duration of a call.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A problem with interactive voice response (IVR) systems is thatautomated speech recognition (ASR) is typically very accurate for someinputs such as zip code and social security number, but can be much lessaccurate for others such as name, street address, etc. It would beadvantageous, therefore, if a service agent could monitor a call andvalidate information provided by the caller, correct erroneousinformation, and so forth. If service agents monitor each call, however,the economic advantage of using an interactive voice response (IVR)system is greatly diminished.

The present invention enables service agents to monitor particularportions of calls that are especially error-prone (e.g., automatedspeech recognition of an address, etc.), while portions of calls thatare not error-prone occur without any human monitoring. In particular,an interactive voice response (IVR) system script (e.g., a VXML script,etc.) is divided into a plurality of independent dialog sequences, eachof which is assigned a human-monitoring requirement that indicateswhether (and optionally, to what degree) the dialog sequence requiresmonitoring by a service agent in order to achieve a desired level ofperformance.

In the first illustrative embodiment of the present invention, a partialordering is defined that indicates which dialog sequences must occurbefore other dialog sequences. The partial ordering may enable a firstdialog sequence that comes after a second dialog sequence in the scriptto in fact be executed before the second dialog sequence when it isadvantageous to do so. For example, suppose a first dialogue sequence ofan interactive voice response (IVR) script asks for the caller's name,and a second dialog sequence that occurs after the first dialoguesequence in the script asks for the caller's telephone number. If noservice agent is available when the interactive voice response (IVR)system is ready to execute the first dialog sequence, it would beadvantageous to first execute the second dialog sequence (whichtypically does not require human monitoring) because a service agentmight subsequently become available to monitor the first dialog sequence(which does require human monitoring). Such a reordering of the dialogsequences would be indicated as permissible by the partial ordering. Aswill be clear to those skilled in the art, there are some pairs ofdialog sequences that should not be reordered in this fashion, as wouldbe indicated by the partial ordering. For example, the options for asecond-level menu should not be presented until after the options for afirst-level menu have been presented and the caller has input his or herselection for the first-level menu.

In the second illustrative embodiment of the present invention, eachdialog sequences that requires human monitoring is recorded and packagedinto an agent-review task, which is subsequently sent to an availableservice agent for review. The agent-review task also contains theautomated speech recognition (ASR) for the dialog sequence, thusenabling the service agent to check for any errors and make anynecessary corrections.

By enabling service agents to monitor or review only the error-proneportions of calls, both illustrative embodiments enable a call center tofunction with fewer service agents.

An illustrative embodiment comprises: selecting a dialog sequence from anon-empty set S of dialog sequences, wherein each of the dialogsequences has a human-monitoring requirement; and executing the dialogsequence during a call that involves an interactive voice responsesystem; wherein the selection of the dialog sequence is based on: (i)the human-monitoring requirements, and (ii) the availability of one ormore service agents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts telecommunications system 100 in accordance with theprior art.

FIG. 2 depicts the salient elements of call center 104, as shown in FIG.1, in accordance with the prior art.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary Voice Extensible Markup Language (VXML)document, in accordance with the prior art.

FIG. 4 depicts telecommunications system 400 in accordance with theillustrative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts the salient elements of call center 404, as shown in FIG.4, in accordance with the illustrative embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of the salient tasks involved in processingan interactive voice response script, in accordance with the firstillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 depicts a detailed flowchart of task 650, as shown in FIG. 6, inaccordance with the first illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of the salient tasks involved in processingan interactive voice response script, in accordance with the secondillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 depicts a detailed flowchart of task 840, as shown in FIG. 8, inaccordance with the second illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 10 depicts an event loop for the salient tasks involved indelivering agent-review tasks to service agents, in accordance with thesecond illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 depicts an event loop for the salient tasks involved in handlingmessages from service agents who process agent-review tasks, inaccordance with the second illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The terms appearing below are given the following definitions for use inthis Description and the appended Claims.

For the purposes of the specification and claims, the term “call” isdefined as an interactive communication involving one or moretelecommunications terminal users. A call might be a traditional voicetelephone call, an instant messaging (IM) session, a video conference,etc.

FIG. 4 depicts telecommunications system 400 in accordance with theillustrative embodiments of the present invention. Telecommunicationssystem 400 comprises telecommunications terminal 102 andtelecommunications network 103 of the prior art, and call center 404,interconnected as shown.

FIG. 5 depicts the salient elements of call center 404, in accordancewith the illustrative embodiments of the present invention. Call center404 comprises private branch exchange (PBX) 505; interactive voiceresponse system (IVR) 506; telecommunications terminals 507-1 through507-N, where N is a positive integer; clients 509-1 through 509-N; andapplication server 510, interconnected as shown.

Application server 510 has the same capabilities as application server210 of the prior art, and is also capable of performing additional tasksas described below and with respect to FIGS. 6 through 10. thefunctionality described with the Private branch exchange (PBX) 505 issimilar to PBX 205 of the prior art and interacts withtelecommunications network 103, interactive voice response system (IVR)506, and telecommunications terminals 507-1 through 507-N as describedabove for PBX 205.

Private branch exchange (PBX) 505 has the same capabilities as PBX 205of the prior art.

Telecommunications terminals 507-1 through 507-N are have the samecapabilities as telecommunications terminals 207-1 through 207-N of theprior art.

Clients 508-1 through 508-N have the same capabilities as clients 208-1through 208-N of the prior art.

Interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 has the same capabilities asIVR system 206 of the prior art, and is also capable of receivingcommands from application server 510 to start and stop recording of acall while the call is in progress.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of the salient tasks involved in processingan interactive voice response script, in accordance with the firstillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

At task 610, application server 510 retrieves an appropriate IVR script(e.g., a VXML script, etc.) during a call C, in well-known fashion.

At task 620, application server 510 generates a set S of dialogsequences from the IVR script. A dialog sequence is a portion of a IVRscript that is independent of any other portions of the IVR script. Forexample, in the IVR script of FIG. 3, the script might be divided intothe following three dialog sequences: a first dialog sequence thatcomprises greeting the caller, asking for his or her social securitynumber, and validating the social security number against a database; asecond dialog sequence that comprises asking the caller for his or hermother's maiden name and validating the name against a database; and athird dialog sequence that comprises presenting the options of the menuand obtaining the caller's selection. It will be clear to those skilledin the art how to parse a IVR script and divide the script into a set ofdialog sequences.

At task 630, application server 510 defines a partial ordering on thedialog sequences of set S. Intuitively, the partial ordering means thateither: a first dialog sequence might temporally come before a seconddialog sequence (i.e., the first dialog sequence is a predecessor of thesecond dialog sequence); the second dialog sequence is a predecessor ofthe first dialog sequence; or they are temporally unrelated (i.e.,either the first can come before the second, or the second can comebefore the first). Formally, a partial ordering over set S is a relationRε S×S such that:

-   -   (i) ┘x εR: (x, x) ∉ R,    -   (ii) ┘x, y ε S where x≠y, at most one of (x, y) and (y, x) ε R,        and    -   (iii) (x, y) ε R and (y, z) εR,        (x, z) ε R.        As is well-known in the art, a variety of data structures such        as a tree or directed acyclic graph can be used to represent a        partial order on a set of elements. In the case of set S, each        node in a tree or graph would represent one of the dialog        sequences of S. It will be clear to those skilled in the art how        to define a partial ordering on, and build a corresponding data        structure for, the dialog sequences of a IVR script based on the        contents and structure of the script.

At task 640, application server 510 assigns or generateshuman-monitoring requirements for the dialog sequences of set S. As willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art, in some embodiments ahuman-monitoring requirement might be a simple Boolean value thatindicates whether a dialog sequence requires any human monitoring, whilein some other embodiments a human-monitoring requirement might be anumeric value that indicates the degree to which a dialog sequencerequires human monitoring, or yet some other data type. As will furtherbe appreciated by those skilled in the art, human-monitoringrequirements can be assigned manually or generated automatically, andcan be based on empirical data (e.g., the error rate of a particulardialog sequence or of a particular class of dialog sequences, etc.), oron heuristics that take into account the length of a dialog sequence,the kind of input requested from the caller in a dialog sequence, and soforth.

At task 650, application server 510 selects a dialog sequence d from setS based on:

-   -   (i) the partial ordering defined at task 630,    -   (ii) the human-monitoring requirements of dialog sequences in S,        and    -   (iii) the availability of one or more service agents.        Task 650 is described in detail below and with respect to FIG.        7.

At task 655, the selected dialog sequence d is removed from set S.

At task 660 application server 510 checks whether dialog sequence drequires human monitoring. As will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art, in some embodiments this might be accomplished by checkingwhether a Boolean value associated with dialog sequence d is true, whilein some other embodiments this might be accomplished by checking whethera numeric value is non-zero. If dialog sequence d requires humanmonitoring, execution proceeds to task 670; otherwise executioncontinues at task 680.

At task 670, if no service agent is available, then execution of themethod waits until a service agent is available. In some embodiments,interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 might output to the caller a“stall phrase” (e.g., “One moment please”, etc.) or a “filler” dialoguesequence (e.g., “Are you still at address 123 Maple Lane?”, “As a valuedcustomer, can we take a moment to ask about some questions about yourlast on-line order experience?”, etc.) in order to avoid the appearanceof a dropped call or system crash.

At task 671, private branch exchange 505 bridges an available serviceagent into call C, in well-known fashion. In some embodiments of thepresent invention, the service agent's client 509 enables the serviceagent to validate information provided during the dialog sequence,correct the information, and so forth. Furthermore, in some embodiments,the service agent might receive a visual representation of the dialogsequence at respective client 509, either in addition to or in lieu ofaudio bridging (as disclosed, for example, in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/874,791, incorporated by reference).

At task 672, interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 executes dialogsequence d for call C, in well-known fashion.

At task 673, private branch exchange 505 drops the service agent fromcall C, in well-known fashion. As appropriate, service agent's client509 also closes the visual representation and the interface forvalidating and correcting information. After task 673 is completed,execution continues at task 690.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, in some variationsof the first illustrative embodiment, instead of waiting for anavailable service agent, the dialog sequence is executed withoutmonitoring by an agent, and a recording of the dialog sequence issubsequently sent to an available service agent for review, as describedbelow and with respect to the second illustrative embodiment.

At task 680, interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 executes dialogsequence d for call C, in well-known fashion.

At task 690, application server 510 checks whether set S is empty. Ifso, the method of FIG. 6 terminates; otherwise execution continues backat task 650.

FIG. 7 depicts a detailed flowchart of task 650 in accordance with thefirst illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

At task 710, variable T is initialized to the set of dialog sequences inS that have no predecessor. In other words, set T contains the dialogsequences of S that do not require another dialog sequence of S to occurbeforehand, and thus are candidates for execution by interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system 506.

At task 720, application server 510 checks whether there is an availableservice agent. If not, execution proceeds to task 730; otherwise,execution continues at task 740.

At task 730, application server 510 selects a dialog sequence from set Tthat has the least human-monitoring requirement (e.g., the smallestnumerical value, a requirement of false, etc.) After task 730, task 650is completed and execution proceeds to task 655.

At task 740, application server 510 checks whether all the dialogsequences of set T have identical human-monitoring requirements. If not,execution proceeds to task 750; otherwise, execution continues at task760.

At task 750, application server 510 selects a dialog sequence from set Tthat does not have the least human-monitoring requirement. As will beappreciated by those skilled in the art, in some embodiments any dialogsequence that does not have the least human-monitoring requirement mightbe selected, while some other embodiments might employ a heuristic forselecting a dialog sequence, perhaps based on the lengths of the dialogsequences, the estimated time until a service agent is available, etc.After task 750, task 650 is completed and execution proceeds to task655.

At task 760, application server 510 selects any dialog sequence from setT. As in task 750, in some embodiments a dialog sequence might beselected arbitrarily, while some other embodiments might employ aheuristic for selecting a dialog sequence. After task 760, task 650 iscompleted and execution proceeds to task 655.

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of the salient tasks involved in processingan interactive voice response script, in accordance with the secondillustrative embodiment of the present invention.

At task 810, application server 510 retrieves an appropriate IVR scriptduring a call C, in well-known fashion.

At task 820, application server 510 identifies the dialog sequences ofthe IVR script. It will be clear to those skilled in the art how toparse a IVR script and identify its constituent dialog sequences.

At task 830, application server 510 assigns or generateshuman-monitoring requirements for the dialog sequences, as describedabove and with respect to task 640.

At task 840, interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 executes theIVR script for call C. Task 840 is described in detail below and withrespect to FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 depicts a detailed flowchart of task 840, in accordance with thesecond illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

At task 910, application server 510 checks whether the current positionin the script (initially, the first line of the script) is the beginningof a dialog sequence that requires human monitoring. If so, executionproceeds to task 920; otherwise, execution continues at task 930.

At task 920, application server 510 sends a signal to interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system 506 to start recording of the dialog sequence.After task 920, execution continues at task 980.

At task 930, application server 510 checks whether the current positionin the script is the end of a dialog sequence that requires humanmonitoring. If so, execution proceeds to task 940; otherwise, executioncontinues at task 970.

At task 940, application server 510 sends a signal to interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system 506 to stop recording of the dialog sequence.

At task 950, application server 510 creates an agent-review taskcomprising: (i) a recording of the just-completed dialog sequence, and(ii) the result of IVR system 506's automatic speech recognition for thejust-completed dialog sequence.

At task 960, application server 510 adds the agent-review task to aqueue for delivery to an available service agent. After task 960,execution continues at task 980.

At task 970, interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 executes thecurrent command of the script, in well-known fashion.

At task 980, application server 510 checks whether the end of the scripthas been reached. If so, the method of FIG. 9 terminates; otherwiseexecution continues at task 990.

At task 990, application server 510 advances the current position in thescript to the next command, and execution continues back at task 910.

FIG. 10 depicts an event loop for the salient tasks involved indelivering agent-review tasks to service agents, in accordance with thesecond illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

At task 1010, the event loop waits until both (i) the agent-review taskqueue is non-empty, and (ii) there are one or more available serviceagents.

At task 1020, an agent-review task is removed from the front of thequeue and sent to an available service agent, in well-known fashion.After task 1020, execution continues back at task 1010.

FIG. 11 depicts an event loop for the salient tasks involved in handlingmessages from service agents who process agent-review tasks, inaccordance with the second illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention.

At task 1110, an agent-review message is received from a service agentA, in well-known fashion.

Task 1120 checks whether the message contains a request to intervene inthe call. If so, execution continues at task 1130, otherwise executionproceeds to task 1140.

At task 1130, private branch exchange 505 bridges service agent A intothe call, in well-known fashion. After task 1130, execution continuesback at task 1110.

Task 1140 checks whether the message contains a request for one or morenew dialog sequences from the call. If so, execution continues at task1150, otherwise execution proceeds to task 1170.

At task 1150, interactive voice response (IVR) system 506 retrievesrecordings of the requested dialog sequences, in well-known fashion.

At task 1160, agent-review tasks that correspond to the recordings arecreated and sent to service agent A. After task 1160, executioncontinues back at task 1110.

If task 1170 is reached, the message contains an approval by the serviceagent and, optionally, an indication of which caller inputs, if any,were modified by the service agent. The message is logged in well-knownfashion, and execution continues back at task 1110.

As described above with respect to task 673, a combination of the firstand second illustrative embodiments is possible in which a dialogsequence that requires human monitoring is monitored in real-time when aservice agent is available, as in the first illustrative embodiment, andwhen no service agent is available, an agent-review task is created, asin the second illustrative embodiment.

It is to be understood that the above-described embodiments are merelyillustrative of the present invention and that many variations of theabove-described embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the scope of the invention. For example, in thisSpecification, numerous specific details are provided in order toprovide a thorough description and understanding of the illustrativeembodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art willrecognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one ormore of those details, or with other methods, materials, components,etc.

Furthermore, in some instances, well-known structures, materials, oroperations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuringaspects of the illustrative embodiments. It is understood that thevarious embodiments shown in the Figures are illustrative, and are notnecessarily drawn to scale. Reference throughout the specification to“one embodiment” or “an embodiment” or “some embodiments” means that aparticular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described inconnection with the embodiment(s) is included in at least one embodimentof the present invention, but not necessarily all embodiments.Consequently, the appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment,” “in anembodiment,” or “in some embodiments” in various places throughout theSpecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, orcharacteristics can be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments. It is therefore intended that such variations be includedwithin the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

1. A method comprising: selecting a dialog sequence from a non-empty setS of dialog sequences, wherein each of said dialog sequences has ahuman-monitoring requirement; and executing said dialog sequence duringa call that involves an interactive voice response system; wherein theselection of said dialog sequence is based on: (i) said human-monitoringrequirements, and (ii) the availability of one or more service agents.2. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating said plurality ofdialog sequences from a script for said interactive voice responsesystem.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein when none of said serviceagents is available, the selected dialog sequence has the leasthuman-monitoring requirement.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein when oneor more of said service agents is available and when two or more of saidhuman-monitoring requirements are different, the selected dialogsequence does not have the least human-monitoring requirement.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the selection of said dialog sequence is alsobased on a partial ordering on said set S.
 6. The method of claim 5wherein when none of said service agents is available, the selecteddialog sequence (i) is a member of set T={d ε S | d has nopredecessors}, and (ii) has the least human-monitoring requirement inset T.
 7. The method of claim 5 wherein when one or more of said serviceagents is available, the selected dialog sequence (i) is a member of setT={d ε S | d has no predecessors}, and (ii) does not have the leasthuman-monitoring requirement in set T when set T has two or more dialogsequences with different human-monitoring requirements.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising: bridging one of said service agents intosaid call during the execution of said dialog sequence when said dialogsequence requires human monitoring; and dropping said one of saidservice agents from said call after said dialog sequence has completed.9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, when said dialog sequencerequires human monitoring, generating an agent-review task thatcomprises one or both of: (i) a recording of said call during saiddialog sequence, and (ii) an output of automated speech recognition. 10.The method of claim 9 further comprising transmitting a signal based onsaid agent-review task to an available one of said service agents.
 11. Amethod comprising generating one or more dialog sequences from aninteractive voice response system script.
 12. The method of claim 11further comprising establishing a partial ordering on said dialogsequences based on said interactive voice response system script. 13.The method of claim 11 further comprising assigning a human-monitoringrequirement to one or more of said dialog sequences based on empiricaldata.
 14. The method of claim 11 further comprising generating ahuman-monitoring requirement for one or more of said dialog sequencesbased on the contents of said one or more dialog sequences.
 15. A methodcomprising: receiving an indication that a service agent is available;and providing said service agent with an agent-review task thatcomprises one or both of: (i) a recording of a portion of a call betweena caller and an interactive voice response system, and (ii) an output ofautomated speech recognition for said portion of said call.
 16. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the providing of said agent-review taskoccurs during said call.
 17. The method of claim 15 wherein said portionof said call corresponds to a dialog sequence that is based on a scriptfor an interactive voice response system.
 18. The method of claim 15further comprising receiving a signal that indicates one of: approval ofsaid agent-review task by said service agent; modification by saidservice agent of one or more inputs received from said caller duringsaid call; one or more new dialog sequences specified by said serviceagent; and a request by said service agent to intervene in said call.19. The method of claim 18 further comprising transferring said call tosaid service agent when said signal indicates a request by said serviceagent to intervene in said call.
 20. The method of claim 18 furthercomprising substituting said one or more new dialog sequences for one ormore existing dialog sequences in a data structure that is associatedwith said call.